CORPORATE TECHNOLOGIES : Overview

Corporate Technologies

This strand of Corporate Watch's work grew out of our earlier work on Genetically Modified crops. When we began looking at the corporate involvement in nanotechnology, it became clear that though the two technologies are very different in detail, the issues that they raise are essentially the same. Corporations own, control and develop new technologies to serve the ends of increased corporate profit and power, often at the expense of democracy, equality and the enviornment.

We decided it made sense to develop an analysis of corporations and new technologies. Rather than having to reinvent the wheel every time we encounter a new technology, we wanted to draw out common themes and to move beyond debates around the specific risks or benefits of a particular technology. In essence, we are not concerned with how to avoid throwing the technological baby out with the bathwater, we want to know who owns the bath? who turns the taps? and who decides when it is bath time? We aim to problematise technological development by introducing questions of democracy and equity into what is too often seen as a purely economic or scientific debate.